Hello everyone!

I'm terribly sorry for the time it took me to up-date this chapter. I've had a lot on my plate as of late and haven't had much time to write or type anything.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get the next chapter up soon.

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

There's No Place like Home

Chapter 6

Our very own strategy

Sakura walked with her head held high, an air of confidence surrounding her in the misty morning air. A thin layer of fog coated her vision of the dirt road leading to the training grounds on this fine day. She could hear birds chirping happily away off to her left and dogs barking a ways off to her right. The village was just waking up and would be bustling about in no time. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet. Sakura's mother had awoken her to inform her daughter that Naruto had come by and had requested that Sakura meet up with both him and Sasuke at the training grounds. Needless to say, the pink-haired ninja had been a little confused, wondering why Naruto had come by so early in the morning, but she wasn't worried. Sasuke and Naruto most likely wanted to pack in as much training as possible before the Chuunin exams began, a grand total of three days from now. This day was meant to be spent prepping for the exams, making sure that all equipment necessary for the test was purchased and in decent shape. Tomorrow would be the day of the carnival, a final day to relax and ease all pent-up tension from their minds for the night. The third day would be used to recuperate and make last minute changes to fighting techniques or jutsus.

Heaving a sigh, Sakura noted as the infamous bridge where Team seven usually met up came into view. So many good memories had been built there, so many tears had been cried there and yet no matter what else took place there, that bridge would forever remain as a place of happiness for the members of Team seven.

As her footsteps lightly walked over the bridge and brought her closer to the training grounds, the pink-haired kunoichi was quite surprised at the sounds that reached her ears. She was expecting to hear curses from Naruto, smug remarks from Sasuke, the noise of two kunai clashing together in a spar, but those sounds were apparently non-existent at the moment at the training grounds for they did not reach her ears. What she heard instead shocked her.

Silence.

For perhaps the first time in her life, as she approached the training grounds the air was still and there was no noise other than the fading soundings of the dogs and birds from earlier on in her walk. She advanced cautiously, wondering if Naruto was going to jump out at her unexpectantly from behind a tree.

After a few cautious moments, she was once again shocked to find that there was no sign of either Naruto's or Sasuke's presences. Either they were waiting for her deeper in the training grounds or they were hiding their chakra. Both were possibilities, but she wanted to believe in the first one more than the second. If her teammates were in fact concealing their chakra, that meant that they would probably be getting ready for a surprise attack, though Sakura doubted that Sasuke would go along with it all the way. Perhaps this was their way of reminding her to stay on edge for the exams; but then again it could be that she was reading a little too much into the silence, which she was inevitably, but was very unaware of this. So, the female ninja continued onward and deeper into the forest that lay on the sectioning of the training grounds of Konoha, ready for anything that should befall her…

…Or so she thought. After approximately ten minutes of walking through the forest with a wary mind and a kunai in her hand, Sakura came to stop a few yards short of where both her teammates sat. They apparently hadn't noticed that she had arrived as they continued their, what appeared to be civilized conversation. Surprise may have not been the best word to describe Sakura's emotion at that moment, but it was a key component to the look on her face.

'Naruto and Sasuke are…talking…like normal people!'

Sakura needed a second to compose herself before she approached the seated ninja. She had been expecting a surprise attack, a few kunai thrown at her to make sure she was at all times paying attention to her surroundings, even Naruto dangling upside down from a tree, but not finding the two most likely people in all of Konoha to be sitting down together and appearing to be enjoying each other's company with good old conversation. How could she have possibly missed such a change in both of the boy's attitudes regarding one another? Was it possible that they were being reasonable for once?

Sakura's footsteps grew heavier as she was no longer trying to be stealthy. There was no need to be if her teammates were right in front of her, after all. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting across from each other, their sides facing in the direction Sakura had come from. She lifted a hand in the air and smiled. She spoke, "Miracles never cease to amaze me. You two are actually having a proper conversation, aren't you?"

Naruto quickly turned his still-seated body to greet Sakura, but also managed to smack Sasuke across the face whilst he did so. He cleared his throat before announcing "No way! Why would a talented ninja like me be talking with such an unworthy, wanna be ninja. The guy caught poison ivy for crying out loud! I don't think he could even-"

Sadly Naruto did not have the chance to finish his sentence as he was thrown into a tree not three feet away from where he had been sitting only two seconds ago. Naruto's back collided with the bark of the tree, his body then falling to the ground and his face drowning in a puddle of water at the tree's base. Naruto lifted his head as water sputtered from his mouth, all the while glaring at Sasuke. The Uchiha simply smirked back at him with an air of superiority. Naruto crawled back to where he had been sitting before and grumbled something under his breath. Sakura could have sworn she had heard him say "Mr. Rash."

Sakura sighed as she took a seat beside both males. And they seemed to have been having such a nice talk, too. Alas, not all good things were meant to last, she concluded.

Where was the good in the world?

Naruto, without saying anything else abruptly stood up and proceeded to stand in front of Sasuke, then sharply turned his body away from the other boy sp that his butt was mere inches from Sasuke's face. Then he farted.

Oh, there it was.

After much fighting and cussing about Naruto's disgusting ways, the three shinobi took a seat on the forest floor together once more. Sakura couldn't help but laugh inwardly at how the all-out fighting event had taken place. After Naruto's rather disgusting moment, Sasuke had lounged forward at Naruto, who had hid behind Sakura, who was trying to hide behind Sasuke from Naruto. A first kunai was thrown by Sakura as a means to get Naruto away from her as soon as she realized he was behind her, then Naruto threw a kunai at Sasuke and finally Sasuke threw a kunai out of frustration at a random tree. Thus the cursing began, soon followed by the fighting. Sakura had ended up defending herself from Sasuke who was really after Naruto but needed to get past Sakura in order to be able to land a hit as Naruto was using her as his own personal body guard. Naruto had been launching attacks at Sasuke from behind Sakura and Sakura had been trying to grab Naruto, who had always managed to re-appear behind her. Eventually, after exchanging quick glances with Sasuke, Sakura rolled to the side, allowing him to hurl a handful of tiny shuriken at a very open Naruto.

As the madness ensued, Sakura performed her replication jutsu and effectively landed a hit on both Naruto's and Sasuke's backs. Then, it became a free-for-all. It had ended pretty funnily, with Naruto being beaten by jumping straight into the thick branch of a tree as he was trying to keep a close eye on Sakura, Sasuke tripping over a large root as he was looking back to see what had happened to Naruto and Sakura laughing so hard she was holding her sides. Very funny, indeed.

So there the three fighters sat, all equally exhausted from their big brawl and yet at the same time as equally content with one another. All felt at ease, simply being in the company of each other was pleasant. Their relationship as a team had grown to such a level already, and still so much was ahead of them. Even with that knowledge resting in the back of their minds, nothing had the power to break through the pure feel of harmony that had washed over them and stayed.

Naruto, who had been holding a small grin with his eyes closed suddenly opened them and clapped his hands together in front of his chest. Sasuke did not open his eyes nor did the grin he maintained on his lips fade, but Sakura's eyes opened at the little but sharp sound Naruto had produced with his hands. She looked at him with curiosity written all over her face, wondering why he had broken the peaceful silence.

The blond boy, using his hands to pull his body around to face Sakura, let a sheepish smile fall onto his face as he parted his lips. "Hey Sakura, are you still worried about the Chuunin exams?"

Sakura brought a finger to her mouth and held it there. That was a very good question…and after a short moment of contemplation, she knew the answer. There was no denying that she wasn't as frightened as she was before about the up-coming event, but she still couldn't pretend that she wasn't a little scared. They was, after all possibility of death. Who wouldn't be afraid of that, other than Naruto and Sasuke, and perhaps all the other ninjas in the world?

"Not as much now, I think. I mean, I can't help but be a bit nervous, you know?" Sakura brought her finger away from her chin and slowly brought her chin to rest in the palm of her left hand instead, with her elbow balanced on one of her crossed legs.

Naruto nodded at her words. "Yeah, I've gotta say that I'm kinda nervous about what we'll have to do, but I'm just itching for a good fight! With Sasuke being such a pathetic opponent and all-" Sasuke growled at that, which made Naruto raise up his hands in a somewhat apologetic way. "Ahem, anyways, I ran into…wait no, Konohamaru actually ran into me yesterday and told me about something he and his friends do sometimes to win that ninja tag game thingy. They think up funny faces, like this-" Naruto stuck his tongue out and pulled down on the skin underneath his right eye "-so that they can, umm, do that communicating thing and know what the other person is gonna do or something like that."

Sasuke grunted and smacked Naruto up-side the head, making the blond fall over. "What the dobe is trying to say is that when Konohamaru plays ninja tag, he and his, err, friends make a plan so that they are almost guaranteed a win when they start the game. Sort of like a code, I guess, but nobody else knows it except for them. They use, as Naruto demonstrated, funny faces to communicate in a way so that none of the other players can understand what they are saying. So even if they were planning an ambush or a surprise attack, their opponent wouldn't know until the last second."

Sakura smiled. "That's pretty smart…wait a sec! Are you guys suggesting that we-"

Naruto suddenly sprang to life and popped up from where he had been knocked down. "Yup! We're gonna be pulling funny faces to communicate with each other during the exams!"

Sasuke smacked Naruto a second time, but he didn't fall over. Instead Naruto rubbed at the spot where Sasuke had hit him on the arm, quite forcefully he noted, but maintained his good cheer. "I mean, Sasuke said he doesn't know if his face will stretch enough to pull a funny face-" Sasuke's fist was hovering about two inches over Naruto's head "-so instead of doing the same thing as Konohamaru, we're gonna make hand signs! That way, no matter what, we'll always be able to communicate! Pretty cool idea, huh?"

Sakura waited until she saw Sasuke lower his fist before answering. "Yeah, for once, our future Hokage has made some sort of sense. So then, what kind of hand signs should we have?"

And so, the three comrades began coming up with ideas, devising their very own strategy for the Chuunin exams. After much arguing, debating, and confusion on a certain blond boy's part, Team 7 had many hand signs, each signifying a different meaning.

Naruto, who had somehow gotten himself into a handstand position rolled out of it and came back into a crossed leg sitting position. "So, let me get this straight. When I lift my hand in the air, it means I need help, when I lift my fist in the air, it means I'm okay and don't need any help, when I lift my hand in the air and hold my index finger up, it means we need to run away, when I raise both my index fingers, it means someone's there, when I put both my ring fingers up, it means I need some extra equipment, when I lift my pinky, it means I'm hurt, when I lift two pinkies, it means I have an idea, and when I raise one of my ring fingers, it means that I can feel that I'm running low on chakra. I think I got them all."

Sakura was smiling and nodding, happy with Naruto for remembering all of the hand signs they had just created, but something felt off. Within a minute, she knew what it was. "But what happens if we get separated and don't know if Naruto is the real Naruto or if Sasuke's the real Sasuke? What hand sign should we do then?"

Sasuke stood up, as did Naruto and Sakura with him. The Uchiha was silent for a second, then a smirk appeared on his face. "I've got it. Let's hold up our right hand in the air like this." Sasuke raised his right hand into the air above him. "We'll keep our thumb, index finger and middle finger up and leave our ring finger and pinky down." Sasuke brought his hand down to show both Naruto and Sakura how the hand sign should look.

Naruto gave a curt nod before asking "Sure, but what's it mean?"

Sasuke looked at both Naruto and Sakura, and held out his hand in front of him whilst it was still holding the hand sign. Naruto instantly thrust his hand next to Sasuke's, his hand also forming the sign. Slowly, Sakura also formed the sign and put her hand in as well.

Again Sasuke looked to his teammates, then looked down at their all three of theirs hands. Finally, he answered Naruto's question,

"It means 'friend.'"

It had been a few hours since Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke had left the training grounds together. They had promised each other that they would all be practicing their hand signs so that they would remember them for the Chuunin exams and therefore would be able to take full advantage of them.

For the first time since Sakura could recall, the trio didn't head straight to Ichiraku's after their 'teamwork' session. Instead, they were walking the streets of Konoha together, stopping in shops to look at items that intrigued them, making comments on how they would change certain aspects of the village if they were Hokage, and talking about the carnival that was to take place tomorrow. They had decided ten minutes earlier that it would be really cool to go as a team, which is what they were definitely going to be doing, as Naruto had closed the discussion with a "Hell yeah!"

Right now, the three teammates were on the topic about what they would change about the village if they were Hokage. Naruto had been very enthusiastic about this topic since it had been brought up. He had been more than delighted to voice his opinions about how he would change the village, and it was apparent that he had been thinking about it for sometime, as he had many ideas to share.

"Well," Sasuke began, "I don't know. It's not like I'd ever want to be Hokage or anything, I'll leave that to the dobe, but I would want to see more scrolls donated to the academy so students could learn more techniques at a much faster rate than we did."

Naruto nodded, and took a pen and note pad from out of one of his back pockets, apparently jotting down what Sasuke had said. "So, Sakura, what would you change about the village?" Naruto asked.

Sakura looked around herself, not sure what to say. There were so many things that could be improved, sure, but she had come to realize that she was quite happy with how Konoha functioned regularly. It was easy to live with, and enjoyable. She watched as Naruto looked up from scribbling on his notepad. "Hmm, I don't think I would change anything."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit and Sasuke brought his head away from watching a couple of academy students trying to perform the basic replication jutsu, turning his attention to her. Naruto raised his voice then. "Nothing at all? You mean, you don't mind some of the tacky colours the fences have been painted, or the way some people just think their so superior because of their rank that they don't need to look at you in the eye? Not many people are like that, mind you…"

Sakura shook her head and gave a smile. "Nope, I don't think I would want to change even that. It's just, this is the Konoha I know. It's home, and I think if we changed too much it just wouldn't feel the same. Funny as it may sound, I like the tacky fences and the different attitudes of the people living here. I'm sure that there are some things that should be changed, but that will be your job, Naruto. I'll leave that up to you."

Naruto's lips broke out into a full smile and he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Heh heh, maybe I won't change that much then. We'll just have to wait and see."

Sakura gave a small laugh and Sasuke smirked. They continued their walk, until Ino's family's flower shop came into view. Sakura sighed and started to walk off to the side of the street towards it, giving a small wave to her teammates as they kept walking straight down the road.

Naruto was a little perplexed. "Hey Sakura, where are you going?" He and Sasuke stopped to wait for her answer, both of the boys turning in her direction to face her.

Sakura ran a hand through her hair and smiled at them. "I've got to go and talk with Ino, but I'll see you guys tomorrow at the carnival. We're meeting at the bridge first, right?"

Naruto nodded and started jumping on the spot. "Yeah! I can't wait! See ya tomorrow, Sakura!"

So, there Sakura stood in front of the entrance to the local flower shop, watching as her two teammates walked off together into the setting sun. Still, as she continued to watch them walk off, she couldn't help but want to yell out something. She didn't know what, but she had that feeling where you didn't want to leave but you knew it was the right thing to do.

So, Sakura called out to her teammates before they were completely out of sight.

"Hey Naruto, Sasuke! Today was fun, let's do it again sometime!"

She observed as Naruto turned around happily and yelled back a "Sure thing!" at her whilst waving his hand very quickly high in the air and Sasuke, though he didn't turn around, raised a hand and gave a small wave. She waved back and slipped inside of the flower shop, with a bright smile on her face.

Humming a cheerful tune to herself, Sakura recalled what Naruto had written down on his notepad. It had read:

'Okay, so Sasuke wants the academy to have the option of learning more stuff than we did, which is okay with me. I, well, know exactly what I wanna change, and Sakura says she likes Konoha the way it is. Better not change too much, then! But the tacky fences hafta go, I can't stand them.'

Hanging out with her team members had been real good fun, and Sakura had even enjoyed some of Naruto and Sasuke's little 'disagreements' from time to time. Though she was still quite a bit anxious about the Chuunin exams, she felt at ease with herself.

She had had a great day with Naruto and Sasuke, and as a member of Team 7, she looked forward to many great days with her teammates.

A/N: I apologize for the time it took me to up-date. I have been quite busy these past few days and have not had very much time to write. I personally wasn't all that fond of this chapter, but I had to write it. Let's just say, I'm hoping that these hand signs will make the Chuunin exams a little more 'interesting'.

As always, I thank you for reading and please give me some feed back,

Rinjii Harayumi